Ingredients
Filling
- 400 gplain cake or biscuit crumbs
- 150 gbutter, softened
- 100 gicing sugar
- 3 tablespoonscocoa powder
- 4 tablespoonspunsch liqueur
- or 4 tablespoons arrack or rum
- 2 tablespoonsstrong coffee
Marzipan
- 400 gmarzipan
- green food colouring
- icing sugar, for rolling
To dip
- 200 gdark chocolate, melted
Directions
- Crumble the cake into fine crumbs. Put the crumbs into a large bowl. Add the softened butter and icing sugar. Add the cocoa powder to the bowl. Add the punsch and the coffee. Work it together with a spoon or your hands. It should hold together firmly. Add more crumbs if it is too wet. Add a little more liquid if it crumbles.
- Taste it and adjust the punsch. The flavour should be clearly there. Cover it and refrigerate it now. Give it at least one full hour. Warm filling cannot be rolled at all. Shaping the filling takes a moment. Divide the cold filling into pieces.
- Roll each into a log with your palms. Aim for about eight centimetres long. Make them about two centimetres thick. Set them out on a lined flat tray.
- Add green colouring to the marzipan. Knead it through very thoroughly. Work until the colour is completely even. Dust the surface with icing sugar as you work. Rolling the marzipan takes care.
- Roll the marzipan out very thinly. Take it down to about three millimetres. Dust underneath with icing sugar. Cut it into neat even rectangles. Each should wrap around one filling log. Set a filling log on a marzipan rectangle. Roll the marzipan around the log. Press the seam closed underneath.
- Press the marzipan smooth with your fingers. Trim the ends neatly with a knife. The filling should show at both ends. Melt the chocolate gently over hot water. Never let water get into the chocolate.
- Let it cool slightly but stay liquid. Dip each end of each roll into it. Dip about one centimetre of it in. Set them on baking paper to set. Setting them takes about an hour. Leave them at cool room temperature. The chocolate sets firm in that time. Keep them cool but not refrigerated.
Technique
- Dammsugare means vacuum cleaner, explained either by the bakery offcuts swept into the filling or by the shape of old cylinder vacuum cleaners, and neither account is firmly documented over the other.
- Swedish punsch is an arrack-based liqueur that grew out of the Swedish East India Company’s trade and became an institution in its own right.
- Bakeries genuinely use their own cake offcuts for the filling, which is the honest origin of the recipe.
Substitutions
- Arrack or dark rum stand in for Swedish punsch, which is hard to find outside the Nordic countries.
- Any plain cake or biscuit crumbs work for the filling.
Variations
- Some bakeries use a stronger green marzipan than others.
- A version with more cocoa in the filling is made by some.
- Punschrulle is the same sweet under a name that avoids the vacuum cleaner joke.
History
Named after a vacuum cleaner for sweeping up bakery offcuts, a Swedish konditori standard.
Frequently asked questions
What is Dammsugare?
Dammsugare is a snack from Sweden: green marzipan roll of cake crumbs and arrack with chocolate-dipped ends. Named after a vacuum cleaner for sweeping up bakery offcuts, a Swedish konditori standard.
How long does Dammsugare take to make?
Dammsugare takes 40 minutes plus chilling of preparation and none of cooking. The recipe makes about 16 rolls. It is rated medium to make.
What can I substitute in Dammsugare?
Yes, within limits. Arrack or dark rum stand in for Swedish punsch, which is hard to find outside the Nordic countries. Any plain cake or biscuit crumbs work for the filling.
What is the most important thing to get right in Dammsugare?
Press the marzipan smooth with your fingers. Trim the ends neatly with a knife. The filling should show at both ends. Melt the chocolate gently over hot water. Never let water get into the chocolate.
